Ideas & Trends; Conflicting Drives: The Mini in Big Car Country

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: April 7, 2002

A CAR seemingly from Lilliput has come to America, land of the giant S.U.V.

The Mini Cooper springs from a nearly half-century-old British car line that peaked in popularity during the 1970's. Over the years, its drivers have included all four Beatles, Clint Eastwood, Peter Sellers and Kate Moss -- and its name is said to have been the inspiration for the term miniskirt.

But can a car smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle play in Peoria?

One would think the odds of success for such a vehicle would not be promising, and it may well flame out in a market where vehicles like Chrysler's gangsterish PT Cruiser and the new Beetle seem like passing flavors-of-the-year. After all, people in America are less likely than ever to forgo S.U.V.'s, pickups and minivans to buy a car -- let alone a small car.

Still, B.M.W., which bought Mini's parent in 1994, has stuck cautiously to the big cities since it started selling the car here last month, and its modest success (the car is currently back-ordered) suggests there might be some sliver of appetite left in America for small cars.

B.M.W. is pitching its line of Mini Coopers, which will start at just under $17,000, as the anti-S.U.V. by harnessing one to the top of a Ford Expedition and piggybacking it around cities. More conventional, if cheeky, ads are appearing on the Internet (''Goliath lost'' says the Mini Web site), and on billboards like one in upstate New York that reads: ''Soon small will mean huge the way bad means good.''

Some people are listening.

Last month, Nathaniel Pearson, a 30-year-old Web designer, and his wife, Michelle Courtois-Pearson, a 29-year-old accessory designer, turned up at the Manhattan shop of the British furniture and housewares designer Terence Conran, where B.M.W. was hosting a Mini party. The Pearsons had ordered one of the tiny cars.

''I'm a non-S.U.V. guy,'' Mr. Pearson said, adding that he has started gauging the length of open curbs adjacent to fire hydrants to determine if his Mini could forge a parking space where no bigger car dared legally tread.

Of course, the utility of small, fuel-efficient cars like the Mini in places like New York City is similar to that of small cars in Paris or Rome, where heavy taxes also make gasoline expensive and where, well, one couldn't really park a Suburban. But the introduction of the Mini in the United States comes at a time when truck mania has reached the point that even Cadillac is now selling pickups and Porsche, known for its sleek speedsters, has an S.U.V. in the works.

In July, General Motors will start selling its Hummer H2, a slightly narrower and more mass-market friendly version of the Hummer H1, G.M.'s take on the Humvee military transport. (H2, unlike H1, ''is garageable,'' said Alan Adler, a G.M. spokesman.)

The question is, do Americans really want to drive something called a Mini when the Hummer lurks? Put it this way: one H2 weighs as much as two and a half Mini Coopers. And if the Hummer says Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Mini says Austin Powers. (The car is expected to make an appearance in the next installment of the film series.)

''I am much more enthusiastic about the miniskirt than the Mini car,'' said Leonard Evans, a British-born safety researcher who spent 33 years working for G.M., implying the fear of some potential car buyers that the Mini might easily be squashed on the open road. Mr. Evans, however, believes driver behavior is a far more relevant crash factor than vehicle type and drives a small car himself, though his Pontiac is certainly not Mini-sized. B.M.W. says the Mini is built with advanced safety features and has six air bags.

It may need more than crash protection.

Last month, at a Senate hearing on raising fuel economy standards, Trent Lott, the Senate minority leader, held up a picture of a purple Smart -- another tiny, golf-cart-sized car popular in Europe. He hailed it as the terrifying European vision that tougher fuel economy regulations, since rejected, would impose on America. ''This may be fine in Boston or Chicago,'' Mr. Lott said, ''but it's not fine in Lucedale, Miss., or Des Moines or a lot of other places.''

PIERRE GAGNON, the president of Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America, said ''I think there's going to be some appeal.'' But his company also plans to double its S.U.V. offerings from two to four by next year. ''I just don't know if Americans are ready for that size of car in the long run,'' he said.

Still, the Mini does have some boosters.

''I think it's absolutely fantastic,'' said J Mays, head of design for the Ford Motor Company, one of the largest makers of S.U.V.'s. Mr. Mays designed the retro Thunderbird and, when he worked for Volkswagen, the retro Beetle.

''I like cars with stories behind them and the Mini certainly has got a story,'' he said. ''You get transported right back to London with Twiggy.''